Two Gentlemen Of Verona (Prose)

Unit 1 – Prose

Two Gentlemen of Verona

by A. J. Cronin

Warm Up

Life is full of ups and downs. It has pleasant surprises as well as rude shocks. Nevertheless, every incident offers a lesson for us to learn and evolve into better individuals.

• Mention some unexpected challenges or adversities one could face in life.
• What qualities do you think one should possess to handle hardships and overcome them?

Here is a story about love, devotion, sacrifice, sincerity and maturity displayed by two little boys in their actions to save the life of their sister who suffers from tuberculosis of the spine. Read the story to find out how their actions give a new hope for humanity.

The Story

As we drove through the foothills of the Alps two small boys stopped us on the outskirts of Verona. They were selling wild strawberries.

“Don’t buy,” warned Luigi, our cautious driver. “You will get much better fruit in Verona. Besides, these boys...”

He shrugged his shoulders to convey his disapproval of their shabby appearance. One boy had on a worn jersey and cut-off khaki pants; the other a shortened army tunic gathered in loose folds about his skinny frame. Yet, gazing at the two little figures, with their brown skins, tangled hair and dark earnest eyes, we felt ourselves strangely attracted. My companion spoke to the boys, discovered that they were brothers. Nicola, the elder, was 13; Jacopo, who barely came up to the door handle of the car, was nearly 12. We bought their biggest basket, and then set off toward town.

Next Morning

Coming out of our hotel, we saw our friends bent over shoe-shine boxes beside the fountain in the public square, doing brisk business. During these summer days, under the hot sun, they:

• shined shoes
• sold fruit
• hawked newspapers
• conducted tourists round the town
• ran errands

One night, we came upon them in the windy and deserted square, resting on the stone pavement beneath the lights. Nicola sat upright, tired. A bundle of unsold newspapers lay at his feet. Jacopo, his head resting upon his brother’s shoulder, was asleep. It was nearly midnight.

“Why are you out so late, Nicola?”
“Waiting for the last bus from Padua. We shall sell all our papers when it comes in.”
“Must you work so hard? You both look rather tired.”
“We are not complaining, sir.”

The Secret

“I thought you picked fruit for a living,” I said.
“We do many things, sir,” Nicola answered seriously.
“Often we show visitors through the town ... to Juliet’s tomb ... and other places of interest.”

As we made the rounds, my interest was again provoked by their remarkable demeanour. They were childish enough, and in many ways quite artless. Jacopo was lively as a squirrel. Nicola’s smile was steady and engaging. Yet in both these boyish faces there was a seriousness which was far beyond their years.

“Nicola, the way you and Jacopo work, you must earn quite a bit. You spend nothing on clothes. You eat little enough — when I see you have a meal it’s usually black bread and figs. Tell me, what do you do with your money?”

He coloured deeply under his sunburn and then grew pale. He looked to the ground.

“You must be saving up to emigrate to America,” I suggested.
He looked at me sideways, spoke with an effort.
“We should greatly like to go to the States. But here, at present, we have other plans.”

“What plans?”
He smiled uncomfortably. “Just plans, sir,” he answered in a low voice.

Sunday at Poleta

“Sir,” Jacopo burst out, “every Sunday we make a visit to the country, to Poleta, 30 kilometres from here. Usually we hire bicycles. But tomorrow, since you are so kind, you might send us in your car.”

I drove them out myself. We drew up at a large red-roofed villa, surrounded by a high stone wall. A pleasant-looking woman with steel-rimmed spectacles appeared, dressed in the white uniform of a trained nurse.

“I just brought two small boys here.”
“Ah, yes.” Her face lit up. “Nicola and Jacopo. I will take you up.”

She led me through a cool, tiled vestibule into the hospital — for hospital the villa had become. At the door of a little cubicle the nurse paused, put her finger to her lips, and with a smile bade me look through the glass partition.

The two boys were seated at the bedside of a girl of about twenty who, propped up on pillows, wearing a pretty lace jacket, was listening to their chatter, her eyes soft and tender. One could see at a glance her resemblance to her brothers. A vase of wild flowers stood on her table, beside a dish of fruit and several books.

“Won’t you go in?” the nurse murmured. “Lucia will be pleased to see you.”

I shook my head and turned away. I felt I could not bear to intrude upon this happy family party. But at the foot of the staircase I drew up and begged her to tell me all she knew about these boys.

The Nurse’s Story

“They were quite alone in the world, except for this sister, Lucia. Their father, a widower, a well-known singer, had been killed in the early part of the war. Shortly afterward a bomb had destroyed their home and thrown the three children into the streets. They had always known a comfortable and cultured life — Lucia had herself been training as a singer — and they had suffered horribly from near starvation and exposure to the cold winter.

For months they had barely kept themselves alive in a sort of shelter they built with their own hands amidst the rubble. Then for three years the Germans ruled the city. The boys grew to hate the Germans. When the resistance movement began secretly to form they were among the first to join. When the war was over, and we had peace at last, they came back to their beloved sister. And they found her — suffering from tuberculosis of the spine.

“Did they give up? I do not have to answer that question. They brought her here, persuaded us to take her into the hospital. In the twelve months she has been our patient she has made good progress. There is every hope that one day she will walk — and sing — again.”

“Of course, everything is so difficult now, food so scarce and dear, we could not keep going unless we charged a fee. But every week, Lucia’s brothers have made their payment.” She added simply, “I don’t know what they do, I do not ask. Work is scarce in Verona. But whatever it is, I know they do it well.”

“Yes,” I agreed. “They couldn’t do it better.”

The Return

I waited outside until the boys rejoined me, and then drove them back to the city. They sat beside me, not speaking. For my part, I did not say a word — I knew they would prefer to feel that they had safely kept their secret. Yet their devotion had touched me deeply.

War had not broken their spirit. Their selfless action brought a new nobility to human life, gave promise of a greater hope for human society.

About the Author

Archibald Joseph Cronin (1896–1981) was a Scottish novelist, dramatist and physician. A doctor by training, Cronin was one of the most renowned storytellers of the twentieth century. Many of his stories have emerged from his medical career and are noted for their narrative skill, deep social conscience and finely drawn characters. Cronin’s books were not only bestsellers but some of them (such as The Citadel and The Keys of the Kingdom) were made into successful films and were adapted for radio and television. His novella Country Doctor was adapted for a long-running BBC radio and TV series.

Glossary

Word	Meaning
shrug	raise one’s shoulders slightly and momentarily
tunic	a loose outer garment without sleeves
slackened	reduced
demeanour	appearance and behaviour
artless	innocent, guileless
hawk	sell things crying out loudly, going from place to place
deserted	uninhabited, unoccupied
emigrate	take up citizenship of another country
vexation	annoyance
vestibule	lobby
chatter	a series of short, quick high-pitched sounds
intrude	enter without permission
rubble	debris, broken bricks

Comprehension Questions

1. Answer in one or two sentences each

a) Who did the narrator meet at the outskirts of Verona?
b) Why did the driver not approve of the narrator buying fruits from the boys?
c) The boys did not spend much on clothes and food. Why?
d) Were the boys saving money to go to the States? How do you know?
e) Why did the author avoid going to Lucia’s room?
f) What was Lucia suffering from?
g) What made the boys join the resistance movement against the Germans?
h) What made the boys work so hard?
i) Why didn’t the boys disclose their problem to the author?

2. Answer in three or four sentences each

a) Describe the appearance of Nicola and Jacopo.
b) What were the various jobs undertaken by the little boys?
c) How did the narrator help the boys on Sunday?
d) Who took the author to the cubicle?
e) Describe the girl with whom the boys were talking to in the cubicle.
f) Recount the untold sufferings undergone by the siblings after they were rendered homeless.
g) The narrator did not utter a word and preferred to keep the secret to himself. Why? Substantiate the statement with reference to the story.

3. Answer in a paragraph (100–150 words each)

a) What was the driving force that made the boys do various jobs?
b) How was the family affected by the war?
c) Write a character sketch of Nicola and Jacopo.
d) What message is conveyed through the story ‘Two Gentlemen of Verona’?
e) Justify the title of the story ‘Two Gentlemen of Verona’.
f) Adversity brings out the best as well as the worst in people. Elucidate this statement with reference to the story.
g) Which character do you like the most in the story and why?

Vocabulary

a) Synonyms & Antonyms

Word	Synonyms	Antonym
cautious	careful, wary	reckless
disapprove	object, condemn	approve
brisk	quick, lively	sluggish
engaging	charming, attractive	repulsive
humble	modest, meek	arrogant
eager	keen, enthusiastic	indifferent
resistance	opposition, defiance	submission
persuade	convince, influence	dissuade
scarce	rare, limited	plentiful
nobility	dignity, aristocracy	baseness

b) Homophones & Confusables

Confusables are words commonly confused in meaning or usage due to slight similarities in spelling, pronunciation or meaning.

Examples:
- emigrate – leave one’s country to settle abroad
- immigrate – come into a country to settle
- beside – at the side of
- besides – in addition to
- judicial – relating to courts
- judicious – showing good judgement
- eligible – qualified
- illegible – unreadable
- conscience – moral sense
- conscious – aware
- industrial – relating to industry
- industrious – hardworking
- eminent – famous
- imminent – about to happen
- illicit – illegal
- elicit – to draw out
- prescribed – recommended
- proscribed – forbidden
- affect – influence
- effect – result
- aural – relating to hearing
- oral – spoken
- born – given birth to
- borne – carried

c) Phrasal Verbs

Phrasal Verb	Meaning	Sample Sentence
cut off	disconnect	The storm cut off electricity.
come upon	find by chance	I came upon an old diary.
put out	extinguish	Firemen put out the blaze.
draw up	prepare	They drew up a contract.
pass out	faint	She passed out in the heat.
take off	remove / leave ground	He took off his shoes.
turn away	refuse entry	The guard turned away the crowd.
stand by	support	Friends stand by you in crisis.
bank on	rely on	Don’t bank on luck alone.

d) Word Formation (Suffixes)

Words formed by adding suffixes:

• frequently → frequency, infrequent
• satisfaction → satisfactory, dissatisfy
• willingness → unwilling, willfully
• comfortable → discomfort, comfortably
• resemblance → resemble, dissimilar
• nobility → noble, ennoble

Listening – Flood Announcement

(Complete the sentences while listening to the announcement.)

a) The announcement was made by the Department of Disaster Management.
b) Widespread heavy rains are expected from the early hours of ………
c) The public is asked to find out the locations of relief centres.
d) An emergency kit should contain water bottles, biscuit packets and a torch.
e) A list of emergency numbers should be displayed on the wall.
f) Important documents can be secured by keeping them in a water-proof case.
g) Damage to refrigerators can be avoided by ………
h) Mobile phones should be charged to enable the marooned to contact their friends, relatives and rescue teams.
i) Bleaching powder should be placed in the toilet bowls to prevent sewage inflow.
j) Listen to the radio and follow the instructions implicitly.

Speaking – Drafting a Speech

Template:

1. Introduction
   - Greet the audience
   - Introduce yourself and the topic

2. Body
   - Definition / importance
   - Causes & consequences
   - Preventive measures / solutions

3. Conclusion
   - Summarise
   - Thank the audience

Task 1: Speech on Tree Planting (100–150 words)
Task 2: Speech on The Importance of a Reading Habit (100–150 words)

Reading – Note Making

Steps:

1. Give a title (main idea).
2. Pick key points (supporting ideas).
3. Add supporting details.
4. Condense using abbreviations.
5. Concluding idea.
6. Number the points.

Passage: Urban Forestry & Smart Cities
(Prepare notes in the above format.)

Grammar – Tenses

Tense	Form	Example
Present Simple	S + V1	I play basketball every week.
Present Continuous	S + am/is/are + V-ing	I am playing now.
Present Perfect	S + have/has + V3	I have just played.
Present Perfect Continuous	S + have/has been + V-ing	I have been playing for 3 hours.
Past Simple	S + V2	I played yesterday.
Past Continuous	S + was/were + V-ing	I was playing all evening.
Past Perfect	S + had + V3	I had played before he came.
Past Perfect Continuous	S + had been + V-ing	I had been playing when he came.
Future Simple	S + will + V1	I will play tomorrow.
Future Continuous	S + will be + V-ing	I will be playing at 5 tomorrow.

Grammar – Modal Auxiliaries

Modal	Use	Example
can	ability / permission	I can speak English.
could	past ability / polite request	Could you help me?
may	possibility / permission	It may rain.
might	weaker possibility	It might rain.
must	necessity / obligation	You must stop.
shall	suggestion	Shall we start?
should	advice / obligation	You should rest.
will	future / willingness	I will come.
would	polite request / past habit	Would you come?
ought to	moral duty	You ought to help.
need to	necessity	I need to go.
dare	challenge	How dare you?
used to	past habit	I used to swim.

Grammar – Reported Speech

Direct: He said, “I am tired.”
Indirect: He said that he was tired.

Tasks:

1. Convert given sentences into reported speech.
2. Complete the dialogue-based reports.
3. Rewrite a passage in indirect speech.

Writing – Letter Writing

Formal Letters:

• Letter of inquiry
• Placing / cancelling orders
• Complaint letters (product / civic amenities)
• Job applications
• Request letters

Informal Letters:

• Personal letters (family / friends)
• Social letters (invitations / condolences)
• Letters to the Editor (neutral)

Format:

1. Heading – writer’s address & date
2. Salutation – Dear Sir / My dear …
3. Body – clear paragraphs
4. Subscription – Yours faithfully / Yours lovingly
5. Signature – name

Tasks: (Choose any)

a) Letter to Grandma after summer visit.
b) Accept / decline invitation to inaugurate English Literary Club.
c) Request for duplicate mark sheet.
d) Complaint about defective juicer.
e) Enquiry about pilot training course.
f) Order furniture for coaching centre.
g) Job application for Personal Secretary.
h) Letter to Editor about roadside vendors.
i) Letter to jaundice-affected friend.

End of Unit 1 – Two Gentlemen of Verona